Common Errors in English - Part 11

UFO

"UFO" stands for "Unidentified Flying Object," so if you're sure that silvery disk is an alien spacecraft, there's no point in calling it a "UFO." I love the sign I once saw in a Seattle bookstore labeling the alien­invasion section: "Incorrectly Identified Flying Objects."

UGLY AMERICAN

The term "ugly American"­­used to describe boorish people from the US insensitive to those in other countries­­bothers fans of the 1958 novel The Ugly American, whose title character was actually sensitive and thoughtful­­he just looked ugly. The popularizers of this phrase hadn't read the book, and judged its message too quickly by its title.

THE UKRAINE/UKRAINE

Some country names are preceded by an article­­like "The United States" and "La France"­­but most are not. Sometimes it depends on what language you are speaking: in English we call the latter country simply "France" and "La Republica Argentina" is just "Argentina" although in the nineteenth century the British often referred to it as "The Argentine."

When the region formerly known as "The Ukraine" split off from the old Soviet Union, it declared its preference for dropping the article, and the country is now properly called simply "Ukraine."

UNCONSCIENCE/UNCONSCIOUS

Do people confuse the unconscious with conscience because the stuff fermenting in one's unconscious is often stuff that bothers one's conscience? Whatever the cause, there is no such word as "unconscience." And while we're on the subject, "subconscious" is not used in Freudian psychology; it implies something that is merely not consciously thought of, rather than something that is suppressed. The term is, however, used by Jungians.

UNDER THE GUISE THAT/UNDER THE GUISE OF

Phishing e­mails try to extract valuable information from you so they can rob you under the guise of protecting your online security. They are disguising their theft as protection. There are other related phrases, mostly ending in "that," such as "under the pretext that" and "with the excuse that"; but "under the guise" requires "of," usually followed by a gerund ending in "­ing."

UNDER WEIGH/UNDER WAY

The original expression for getting a boat moving has nothing to do with weighing anchor and is "getting under way," but so many sophisticated writers get this wrong that you're not likely to get into trouble if you imitate them.

When "underway" is used elsewhere as an adjective or adverb, by far the most common spelling is as a single word, as in "our plans are underway"; though some authorities argue that the adverbial form should be spelled as two words: "under way."

UNDERESTIMATED

Enthusiastic sportscasters often say of a surprisingly talented team that "they cannot be underestimated" when what they mean is "they should not be underestimated."

UNDERLINING/UNDERLYING

You can stress points by underlining them, but it's "underlying" in expressions like "underlying story," "underlying motive," and "underlying principle."

UNDERMIND/UNDERMINED

Some people believe in a mystical overmind, but not even they believe in an "undermind." The word is "undermined." If you dig under a castle wall to prepare to breach its defenses, you are undermining it, digging a mine under it. The metaphor applies to all sorts of weakening of opposing positions, most often in arguments.

UNDO/UNDUE

The verb "undo" is the opposite of "do." You undo your typing errors on a computer or undo your shoelaces to go wading.

The adjective "undue" is the opposite of "due" and means "unwarranted" or "improper." It is used in phrases like "undue influence," "undue burdens," and "undue expense."

UNDOUBTABLY/UNDOUBTEDLY

Doubtless the spelling of "presumably" influences the misspelling "undoubtably." The word is "undoubtedly." When something is undoubtedly true, it is undoubted.

UNKEPT/UNKEMPT

"Unkempt" is an old version of "uncombed." The standard expression for a sloppy­looking person is not "unkept," but "unkempt."

UNREST

Journalists often use this mild term to describe all manner of civil disorders, but it's silly to call mayhem or chaos merely "unrest" when there are bullets flying about and bodies lying in the streets.

UNTHAW/THAW

"Unthaw" is another illogical negative. Use "thaw."

UNTRACKED/ON TRACK

When things begin running smoothly and successfully, they get "on track." Some people oddly substitute "untracked" for this expression, perhaps thinking that to be "tracked" is to be stuck in a rut.

UPMOST/UTMOST

"Upmost" can mean "uppermost," referring to something on top. But usually this word is a mistake for "utmost," meaning "most extreme." "Utmost" is related to words like "utter," as in "The birthday party was utter chaos."

UPTO/UP TO

Not upto alot lately? You might use some of your spare time memorizing the fact that "up to" is a two­word phrase, as is "a lot."

URINE ANALYSIS/URINALYSIS

The technical term for the test you use to kick the druggies off the team is not "urine analysis" but "urinalysis."

USE/USAGE

"Use" and "usage" overlap somewhat, but they are not entirely synonymous. Many people treat "usage" as if it were just a fancier form

of "use" in phrases like "make usage of," where "make use of" is the standard expression. As a rule of thumb, if either "use" or "usage" seems appropriate, go with "use."

USE TO/USED TO

Because the D and the T are blended into a single consonant when this phrase is pronounced, many writers are unaware that the D is even present and omit it in writing. See also "suppose to."

USED TO COULD/USED TO BE ABLE

"I used to could lift a hay­bale with my teeth," says Jeb, meaning "I used to be able to."

UTILIZE/USE

The best use for "utilize" is to mean "make use of": "Ryan utilized his laptop in the library mainly as a pillow to rest his head on." In most contexts, "use" is simpler and clearer. Many readers consider "utilize" pretentious.

VAGUE REFERENCE

Vague reference is a common problem in sentences where "this," "it," "which" or other such words don't refer back to any one specific word or phrase, but a whole situation. "I hitchhiked back to town, got picked up by an alien spacecraft and was subjected to humiliating medical experiments, which is why I didn't get my paper done on time." In conversation this sort of thing goes unnoticed, but more care needs to be taken in writing. There are lots of ways to reorganize this sentence to avoid the vague reference. You could begin the sentence with "because" and replace "which is why" with "so," for instance.

Sometimes the referent is only understood and not directly expressed at all: "Changing your oil regularly is important, which is one reason your engine burned up." The "which" refers to an implied failure to change oil regularly, but doesn't actually refer back to any of the specific words used earlier in the sentence.

Sometimes there is no logical referent: "In the book it says that Shakespeare was in love with some 'dark lady'." This is a casual way of using "it" that is not acceptable in formal written English. Write instead "Arthur O. Williams says in The Sonnets that Shakespeare. . . ."

A reference may be ambiguous because it's not clear which of two referents is meant: "Most women are attracted to guys with a good sense of humor unless they are into practical jokes." Does "they" refer to "women" or "guys"? It would be clearer if the sentence said "Most women are attracted to guys with a good sense of humor, though not usually to practical jokers."

VAIN/VANE/VEIN

When you have vanity you are conceited: you are vain. "You're so vain you probably think this song is about you." This spelling can also mean "futile," as in "All my love's in vain" (fruitless). Note that when Ecclesiastes says that "all is vanity" it doesn't mean that everything is conceited, but that everything is pointless.

A vane is a blade designed to move or be moved by gases or liquid, like a weathervane.

A vein is a slender thread of something, like blood in a body or gold in a mine. It can also be a line of thought, as in "After describing his dog's habit of chewing on the sofa, Carlos went on in the same vein for several minutes."

VARIOUS/SEVERAL

Many people say "she heard from various of the committee members that they wanted to cancel the next meeting." "Several of the committee members" would be better.

VARY/VERY

"Vary" means "to change." Don't substitute it for "very" in phrases like "very nice" or "very happy."

VEIL OF TEARS/VALE OF TEARS

The expression "vale of tears" goes back to pious sentiments that consider life on earth to be a series of sorrows to be left behind when we go on to a better world in Heaven. It conjures up an image of a suffering traveler laboring through a valley ("vale") of troubles and sorrow. "Veil of tears" is poetic sounding, but it's a mistake.

VENDOR

Some writers are turning "vendor" into a verb meaning "to sell," writing things like, "he was vendoring comic books on eBay." Since "vend" is already a verb meaning "sell" and "vendor" is normally a noun, this sounds very odd to many readers.

Other people use forms of the word mean "to be certified as a vendor": "Persons wishing to be vendored must complete the appropriate form." This process is also referred to as "vendorization."

This pattern is probably inspired by the widespread use of "vendor" to label suppliers on commercial Web sites. Instead of thinking of vendors as mere merchants, dealers, or sellers, some special quality is being attributed to them.

None of this is standard English.

VERB TENSE

If the situation being described is an ongoing or current one, the present tense is needed, even in a past­tense context: "Last week she admitted that she is really a brunette" (not "was").

Pairs of verbs that go together logically have to be kept in the same tense. Incorrect: "Patricia described her trip to China and writes that the Great Wall really impressed her." Since "described" is in the past tense, and the writing contains her descriptions, "writes" should be "wrote."

Lots of people get into trouble with sentences that describe a hypothetical situation in the past: "If he would have packed his own suitcase, he would have noticed that the cat was in it." That first "would have" should be a simple "had": "If he had packed his own suitcase he would have noticed that the cat was in it." Also "The game would have been more fun if we had [not "would have"] won." This sort of construction consists of two parts: a hypothetical cause in the past and its logical effect. The hypothetical cause needs to be put into the past tense: "had." Only the effect is made conditional: "would have." Note that in the second example above the effect is referred to before the cause.

Students summarizing the plot of a play, movie, or novel are often unfamiliar with the tradition of doing so in the present tense: "Hester embroiders an " A" on her dress." Think of the events in a piece of fiction as happening whenever you read them­­they exist in an eternal present even if they are narrated in the past tense. Even those who are familiar with this pattern get tripped up when they begin to discuss the historical or biographical context of a work, properly using the past tense, and forget to shift back to the present when they return to plot summary. Here's how it's done correctly: "Mark Twain's days on the Mississippi were long past when he wrote Huckleberry Finn; but Huck's love for life on the river clearly reflects his youthful experience as a steamboat pilot." The verb "reflects" is in the present tense. Often the author's activity in writing is rendered in the present tense as well: "Twain depicts Pap as a disgusting drunk." What about when you are comparing events that occur at two different times in the same narrative? You still have to stick to the present: "Tom puts Jim through a lot of unnecessary misery before telling him that he is free." Just remember when you go from English to your history class that you have to shift back to the past tense for narrating historical events: "Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo."

VERBAGE/VERBIAGE

"Verbiage" is an insulting term usually meant to disparage needlessly wordy prose. Don't use it to mean simply "wording." There is no such word as "verbage."

VERACIOUS/VORACIOUS

If you are extremely hungry, you may have a "voracious" appetite (think

of the O as an open mouth, ready to devour anything). "Veracious" is an

unusual word meaning "truthful, honest" (think about the E in "verify").

A truthful person has "veracity." "Voracity," meaning "extreme appetite" is a rare word you are unlikely to have a use for; "voraciousness" is more common.

VERSE/PLAY AGAINST

Some young people use "verse" as a verb meaning "to play against," as in "I'll verse you at basketball after school." Computer gamers are particularly fond of virtual opponents versing each other. Presumably this bit of slang derives from the word "versus," but it's not standard English and is likely to confuse outsiders.

VERSES/VERSUS

The "vs." in a law case like "Brown vs. The Board of Education" stands for Latin versus (meaning "against"). Don't confuse it with the word for lines of poetry­­"verses"­­when describing other conflicts, like the upcoming football game featuring Oakesdale versus Pinewood.

Note that in formal legal contexts the usual abbreviation is usually just "v.", as in "Brown v. The Board of Education."

VERY UNIQUE/UNIQUE

"Unique" singles out one of a kind. That "un" at the beginning is a form of "one." A thing is unique (the only one of its kind) or it is not. Something may be almost unique (there are very few like it), but nothing is "very unique."

VICIOUS/VISCOUS CIRCLE/CYCLE

The term "vicious circle" was invented by logicians to describe a form of fallacious circular argument in which each term of the argument draws on the other: "Democracy is the best form of government because democratic elections produce the best governments." The phrase has been extended in popular usage to all kinds of self­exacerbating processes such as this: poor people often find themselves borrowing money to pay off their debts, but in the process create even more onerous debts which in their turn will need to be financed by further borrowing. Sensing vaguely that such destructive spirals are not closed loops, people have transmuted "vicious circle" into "vicious cycle." The problem with this perfectly logical change is that a lot of people know what the original "correct" phrase was and are likely to scorn users of the new one. They go beyond scorn to contempt however toward those poor souls who render the phrase as "viscous cycle." Don't use this expression unless you are discussing a Harley­Davidson in dire need of an oil change.

VIDEO/FILM

Many of us can remember when portable transistorized radios were ignorantly called "transistors." We have a tendency to abbreviate the names of various sorts of electronic technology (see "stereo" and "satellite"), often in the process confusing the medium with the content. Video is the electronic reproduction of images, and applies to

broadcast and cable television, prerecorded videocassette recordings (made on a videocassette recorder, or VCR), and related technologies. MTV appropriated this broad term for a very narrow meaning: "videotaped productions of visual material meant to accompany popular music recordings." This is now what most people mean when they speak of "a video," unless they are "renting a video," in which case they mean a videocassette or DVD recording of a film. One also hears people referring to theatrical films that they happened to have viewed in videotaped reproduction as "videos." This is simply wrong. A film is a film (or movie), whether it is projected on a screen from 35 or 70 mm film or broadcast via the NTSC, SECAM or PAL standard. Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" is not now and never will be a "video."

VINEGARETTE/VINAIGRETTE

Naive diners and restaurant workers alike commonly mispronounce the classic French dressing called "vinaigrette" as if it were "vinegarette." To be more sophisticated, say "vin­uh­GRETT" (the first syllable rhymes with "seen").

VINTAGE POINT/VANTAGE POINT

The spot from which you have a good view is a vantage point.

VIRII/VIRUSES

Hackers like to use "virii" as the plural form of "virus," but Latin scholars object that this invented term does not follow standard patterns in that language, and that there is already a perfectly good plural in English: "viruses."

VITAE/VITA

Unless you are going to claim credit for accomplishments in previous incarnations, you should refer to your "vita," not your "vitae." All kidding aside, the "ae" in "vitae" supposedly indicates the genitive rather than the plural; but the derivation of "vita" from "curriculum vitae" is purely speculative (see the Oxford English Dictionary), and "vitae" on its own makes no sense grammatically.

"Resume," by the way, is a French word with both "Es" accented, and literally means "summary." In English one often sees it without the accents, or with only the second accent, neither of which is a serious error. But if you're trying to show how multilingual you are, remember the first accent.

VIOLA/VOILA

A viola is a flower or a musical instrument. The expression which means "behold!" is "voila." It comes from a French expression literally meaning "look there!" In French it is spelled with a grave accent over the A, but when it was adopted into English, it lost its accent. Such barbarous misspellings as "vwala" are even worse, caused by the reluctance of English speakers to believe that "OI" can represent the

sound "wah," as it usually does in French.

VOLUMN/VOLUME

There are a few unusual words in English when ending in "MN" in which the "N" is silent, such as "hymn" and "column," but "volume" is not one of them.

VOLUMPTUOUS/VOLUPTUOUS

Given the current mania for slim, taut bodies, it is understandable­­if amusing­­that some folks should confuse voluptuousness with lumpiness. In fact, "voluptuous" is derived from Latin "voluptas," which refers to sensual pleasure and not to shape at all. A voluptuous body is a luxurious body.

WAIL/WHALE

One informal meaning of "whale" is "to beat." Huck Finn says of Pap that "He used to always whale me when he was sober."

Although the vocalist in a band may wail a song, the drummer whales on the drums; and lead guitarists when they thrash their instruments wildly whale on them.

Although this usage dates back to the 18th century and used to be common in Britain and America, it is now confined mostly to the US, and even there people often mistakenly use "wail" for this meaning.

WAIT ON/WAIT FOR

In some dialects it's common to say that you're waiting on people or events when in standard English we would say you're waiting for them. Waiters wait on people, so it's all right to say "I'm tired of waiting on you hand and foot"; but you shouldn't say "I'm waiting on you down here at the police station; bring the bail money so I can come home."

WALK THE TALK/WALK THE WALK

Aristotle's followers are said to have discussed philosophy while walking about with him­­hence their name: "peripatetics." I suppose they could be have been said to "walk the talk."

For the rest of us, the saying is "if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk"­­a modern version of old sayings like "actions speak louder than words" and "practice what you preach." Another early form of the expression was "walk it like you talk it."

Many people now condense this to "walk the talk," which makes a sort of sense (act on your speech), but strikes those who are more familiar with the original form as confused.

WANDER/WONDER

If you idly travel around, you wander. If you realize you're lost, you wonder where you are.

WARMONGERER/WARMONGER

"Monger" is a very old word for "dealer." An ironmonger sells metal or hardware, and a fishmonger sells fish. Warmongers do not literally sell wars, but they advocate and promote them. For some reason lots of people tack an unneeded extra "­er" onto the end of this word. Why would you say "mongerer" when you don't say "dealerer"?

WARY/WEARY/LEERY

People sometimes write "weary" (tired) when they mean "wary" (cautious) which is a close synonym with "leery" which in the psychedelic era was often misspelled "leary"; but since Timothy Leary faded from public consciousness, the correct spelling has prevailed.

WARRANTEE/WARRANTY

Confused by the spelling of "guarantee," people often misspell the related word "warrantee" rather than the correct "warranty." "Warrantee" is a rare legal term that means "the person to whom a warrant is made." Although "guarantee" can be a verb ("we guarantee your satisfaction"), "warranty" is not. The rarely used verb form is "to warrant."

WAS/WERE

In phrases beginning with "there" many people overlook the need to choose a plural or singular form of the verb "to be" depending on what follows. "There were several good­looking guys at the party" [plural]; "unfortunately one of them was my husband" [singular].

WASH

In my mother's Oklahoma dialect, "wash" was pronounced "warsh," and I was embarrassed to discover in school that the inclusion of the superfluous "R" sound was considered ignorant. This has made me all the more sensitive now that I live in Washington to the mispronunciation "Warshington." Some people tell you that after you "warsh" you should "wrench" ("rinse").

WAX

An unusual use of the word "wax" is "to change manner of speaking," as in "she waxed eloquent on the charms of New Jersey" or "he waxed poetic on virtues of tube amplifiers." These expressions mean that she became eloquent and he became poetic. It is an error to say instead "she waxed eloquently" or " he waxed poetically."

WAY/FAR, MUCH MORE

Young people frequently use phrases like "way better" to mean "far

better" or "very much better." In formal writing, it would be gauche to say that Impressionism is "way more popular" than Cubism instead of "much more popular."

WAYS/WAY

In some dialects it's common to say "you've got a ways to go before you've saved enough to buy a Miata," but in standard English it's "a way to go."

WEAK/WEEK

People often absentmindedly write "last weak" or "next weak." Less often they write "I feel week." These mistakes will not be caught by a spelling checker.

"Weak" is the opposite of "strong." A week is made up of seven days.

WEATHER/WETHER/WHETHER

The climate is made up of "weather"; whether it is nice out depends on whether it is raining or not. A wether is just a castrated sheep.

WEINER/WIENER

The Vienna sausage from the city the Austrians call Wien inspired the American hot dog, or wiener. Americans aren't used to the European pronunciation of IE as "ee" and often misspell the word as "weiner."

WENSDAY/WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was named after the Germanic god "Woden" (or "Wotan"). Almost no one pronounces this word's middle syllable distinctly, but it's important to remember the correct spelling in writing.

WENT/GONE

The past participle of "go" is "gone" so it's not "I should have went to the party" but "I should have gone to the party."

WE'RE/WERE

"We're" is a contraction of the phrase "we are": the apostrophe stands for the omitted letter A. "Were" is simply a plural past­tense form of the verb "are." To talk about something happening now or in the future, use "we're"; but to talk about something in the past, use "were." If you can't substitute "we are" for the word you've written, omit the apostrophe.

"We were going to go to the party as a prince and princess, but Derek cut himself shaving, so we're going instead as a female werewolf and her victim."

WERE/WHERE

Sloppy typists frequently leave the "H" out of "where." Spelling checkers do not catch this sort of error, of course, so look for it as you proofread.

WET YOUR APPETITE/WHET YOUR APPETITE

It is natural to think that something mouth­watering "wets your appetite," but actually the expression is "whet your appetite"­­sharpen your appetite, as a whetstone sharpens a knife.

WHACKY/WACKY

Although the original spelling of this word meaning "crazy" was "whacky," the current dominant spelling is "wacky." If you use the older form, some readers will think you've made a spelling error.

WHAT/THAT

In some dialects it is common to substitute "what" for "that," as in "You should dance with him what brought you." This is not standard usage.

WHEAT/WHOLE WHEAT

Waiters routinely ask "Wheat or white?" when bread is ordered, but the white bread is also made of wheat. The correct term is "whole wheat," in which the whole grain, including the bran and germ, has been used to make the flour. "Whole wheat" does not necessarily imply that no white flour has been used in the bread; most whole wheat breads incorporate some white flour.

WHEELBARREL/WHEELBARROW

One very old meaning of the word "barrow" is an open container for carrying people or goods. The earliest barrows were carried by two people holding handles on either end. Add a wheel to one end and you have a wheelbarrow which can be handled by a single person. The word is also sometimes applied to two­wheeled versions.

The word has nothing to do with barrels.

WHENEVER/WHEN

"Whenever" has two main functions. It can refer to repeated events: "Whenever I put the baby down for a nap the phone rings and wakes her up." Or it can refer to events of whose date or time you are uncertain: "Whenever it was that I first wore my new cashmere sweater, I remember the baby spit up on it." In some dialects (notably in Northern Ireland and Texas) it is common to substitute "whenever" for "when" in statements about specific events occurring only once and whose date is known: "Whenever we got married, John was so nervous he dropped the ring down my decolletage." This is nonstandard. If an event is unique and its

date or time known, use "when."

WHEREABOUTS ARE/WHEREABOUTS IS

Despite the deceptive "S" on the end of the word, "whereabouts" is normally singular, not plural. "The whereabouts of the stolen diamond is unknown." Only if you were simultaneously referring to two or more persons having separate whereabouts would the word be plural, and you are quite unlikely to want to do so.

WHERE IT'S AT

This slang expression gained widespread currency in the sixties as a hip way of stating that the speaker understood the essential truth of a situation: "I know where it's at." Or more commonly: "You don't know where it's at." It is still heard from time to time with that meaning, but the user risks being labeled as a quaint old Boomer. However, standard usage never accepted the literal sense of the phrase. Don't say, "I put my purse down and now I don't know where it's at" unless you want to be regarded as uneducated. "Where it is" will do fine; the "at" is redundant.

WHEREFORE

When Juliet says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" she means "Why do you have to be Romeo­­why couldn't you have a name belonging to some family my folks are friendly with?" She is not asking where Romeo is. So if you misuse the word in sentences like "Wherefore art thou, Stevie Wonder?" (you wish he'd make another great album like he used to), you make yourself sound illiterate rather than sophisticated.

WHETHER/WHETHER OR NOT

"Whether" works fine on its own in most contexts: "I wonder whether I forgot to turn off the stove?" But when you mean "regardless of whether" it has to be followed by "or not" somewhere in the sentence: "We need to leave for the airport in five minutes whether you've found your teddy bear or not."

See also "if/whether."

WHILST/WHILE

Although "whilst" is a perfectly good traditional synonym of "while," in American usage it is considered pretentious and old­fashioned.

WHIM AND A PRAYER

A 1943 hit song depicted a bomber pilot just barely managing to bring his shot­up plane back to base, "comin' in on a wing and a prayer" (lyrics by Harold Adamson, music by Jimmy McHugh). Some people who don't get the allusion mangle this expression as "a whim and a prayer." Whimsicality and fervent prayerfulness don't go together.

WHIMP/WIMP

The original and still by far the most common spelling of this common bit of slang meaning "weakling, coward," is "wimp." If you use the much less common "whimp" instead people may regard you as a little wimpy.

WHOA IS ME/WOE IS ME

"Whoa" is what you tell a horse to get it to stop, extended in casual speech to an interjection meant to make someone pause to think in the middle of a conversation­­sometimes misspelled "woah." The standard woeful lament is "Woe is me."

WHIP CREAM/WHIPPED CREAM

You whip cream until it becomes whipped cream; and that's what you should write on the menu.

WHISKY/WHISKEY

Scots prefer the spelling "whisky"; Americans follow instead the Irish spelling, so Kentucky bourbon is "whiskey."

WHO'S/WHOSE

This is one of those cases where it is important to remember that possessive pronouns never take apostrophes, even though possessive nouns do (see it's/its). "Who's" always and forever means only "who is," as in "Who's that guy with the droopy mustache?" or "who has," as in "Who's been eating my porridge?" "Whose" is the possessive form of "who" and is used as follows: "Whose dirty socks are these on the breakfast table?"

WHO/WHOM

"Whom" has been dying an agonizing death for decades­­you'll notice there are no Whoms in Dr. Seuss's Whoville. Many people never use the word in speech at all. However, in formal writing, critical readers still expect it to be used when appropriate. The distinction between "who" and "whom" is basically simple: "who" is the subject form of this pronoun and "whom" is the object form. "Who was wearing that awful dress at the Academy Awards banquet?" is correct because "who" is the subject of the sentence. "The MC was so startled by the neckline that he forgot to whom he was supposed to give the Oscar" is correct because "whom" is the object of the preposition "to." So far so good.

Now consider this sort of question: "Who are you staring at?" Although strictly speaking the pronoun should be "whom," nobody who wants to be taken seriously would use it in this case, though it is the object of the preposition "at". (Bothered by ending the sentence with a preposition? See my "Non­Errors" section.) "Whom" is very rarely used even by careful speakers as the first word in a question, and many authorities have now conceded the point.

There is another sort of question in which "whom" appears later in the sentence: "I wonder whom he bribed to get the contract?" This may seem at first similar to the previous example, but here "whom" is not the subject of any verb in the sentence; rather it is part of the noun clause which itself is the object of the verb "wonder." Here an old gender­biased but effective test for "whom" can be used. Try rewriting the sentence using "he" or "him." Clearly "He bribed he" is incorrect; you would say "he bribed him." Where "him" is the proper word in the paraphrased sentence, use "whom."

Instances in which the direct object appears at the beginning of a sentence are tricky because we are used to having subjects in that position and are strongly tempted to use "who": "Whomever Susan admired most was likely to get the job." (Test: "She admired him." Right?)

Where things get really messy is in statements in which the object or subject status of the pronoun is not immediately obvious. Example: "The police gave tickets to whoever had parked in front of the fire hydrant." The object of the preposition "to" is the entire noun clause, "whoever had parked in front of the fire hydrant," but "whoever" is the subject of that clause, the subject of the verb "had parked." Here's a case where the temptation to use "whomever" should be resisted.

Confused? Just try the "he or him" test, and if it's still not clear, go with "who." You'll bother fewer people and have a fair chance of being right.

WHOLE­HARDILY/WHOLEHEARTEDLY

If you want to convey your hearty congratulations to someone, you do so not "whole­hardily" but "wholeheartedly"­­with your whole heart.

A WHOLE 'NOTHER/A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

It is one thing to use the expression "a whole 'nother" as a consciously slangy phrase suggesting rustic charm and a completely different matter to use it mistakenly. The "A" at the beginning of the phrase is the common article "a" but is here treated as if it were simultaneously the first letter of "another," interrupted by "whole."

WHO'S EVER/WHOEVER'S

In speech people sometimes try to treat the word "whoever" as two words when it's used in the possessive form: "Whose­ever delicious plums those were in the refrigerator, I ate them." Occasionally it's even misspelled as "whoseever." The standard form is "whoever's," as in "Whoever's plums those were. . . ."

WILE AWAY/WHILE AWAY

"Waiting for my physical at the doctor's office, I whiled away the time reading the dessert recipes in an old copy of Gourmet magazine." The expression "while away the time" is the only surviving context for a very old use of "while" as a verb meaning "to spend time." Many people

substitute "wile," but to wile people is to lure or trick them into doing something­­quite different from simply idling away the time. Even though dictionaries accept "wile away" as an alternative, it makes more sense to stick with the original expression.

­WISE

In political and business jargon it is common to append "­wise" to nouns to create novel adverbs: "Revenue­wise, last quarter was a disaster." Critics of language are united in objecting to this pattern, and it is often used in fiction to satirize less than eloquent speakers.

WITHIN/AMONG

"Within" means literally "inside of," but when you want to compare similarities or differences between things you may need "among" instead. It's not "There are some entertaining movies within the current releases," but "among the current releases." But you can use "within" by rewriting the sentence to lump the movies together into a single entity: "There are some entertaining movies within the current batch of releases." A batch is a single thing, and the individual films that make it up are within it.

WOMAN/WOMEN

The singular "woman" probably gets mixed up with the plural "women" because although both are spelled with an O in the first syllable, only the pronunciation of the O really differentiates them. Just remember that this word is treated no differently than "man" (one person) and "men" (more than one person). A woman is a woman­­never a women.

WONT/WON�T

People often leave the apostrophe out of "won't," meaning "will not." "Wont" is a completely different and rarely used word meaning "habitual custom." Perhaps people are reluctant to believe this is aq contraction because it doesn't make obvious sense like "cannot" being contracted to "can't." The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that "won't" is a contraction of a nonstandard form: "woll not."

WORLD WIDE WEB

"World Wide Web" is a name that needs to be capitalized, like "Internet." It is made up of Web pages and Web sites (or, less formally, Websites).

WORSE COMES TO WORSE/WORST COMES TO WORST

The traditional idiom is "if worst comes to worst." The modern variation "worse comes to worst" is a little more logical. "Worse comes to worse" is just a mistake.

WOULD HAVE/HAD

The standard way to talk about something in the past that's different from what really happened is to use "had," as in "The robber wished he had given the bank clerk a fake when she asked for his ID card." People often say instead "wished he would have," but this pattern is not acceptable in standard written English.

WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE/WOULD HAVE LIKED

"She would liked to have had another glass of champagne" should be "she would have liked to have another glass. . . ."

WRANGLE/WANGLE

If you deviously manage to obtain something you wangle it: "I wangled an invitation to Jessica's party by hinting that I would be inviting her to our house on the lake this summer." But if you argue with someone, you wrangle with them: "Once I got to the party, Jessica's attitude irritated me so much that we wound up wrangling constantly during it." Of course cowboys wrangle cattle, and specialists wrangle other animal species in films.

WRAPPED/RAPT

When you get deeply involved in a project, you may say you're wrapped up in it; but if you are entranced or enraptured by something you are "rapt," not "wrapped." The word means "carried away" and is used in expressions like "listening with rapt attention," "rapt expression," and "rapt in conversation."

WRECKLESS/RECKLESS

This word has nothing to do with creating the potential for a wreck. Rather it involves not reckoning carefully all the hazards involved in an action. The correct spelling is therefore "reckless."

WRITE ME

Many UK English speakers and some American authorities object strongly to the common American expression "write me," insisting that the correct expression is "write to me." But "write me" is so common in US English that I think few Americans will judge you harshly for using it. After all, we say "call me"­­why not "write me"? But if you're an American trying to please foreigners or particularly picky readers, you might keep the "write me" phobia in mind.

If you disagree, please don't write me.

WRITTING/WRITING

One of the comments English teachers dread to see on their evaluations is "The professor really helped me improve my writting." When "­ing" is added to a word which ends in a short vowel followed only by a single consonant, that consonant is normally doubled, but "write" has a silent E on the end to ensure the long I sound in the word. Doubling the T in

this case would make the word rhyme with "flitting."

WONDERKIND/WUNDERKIND

We borrowed the term "wunderkind," meaning "child prodigy," from the Germans. We don't capitalize it the way they do, but we use the same spelling. When writing in English, don't half­translate it as "wonderkind."

YA'LL/Y'ALL

"How y'all doin'?" If you are rendering this common Southernism in print, be careful where you place the apostrophe, which stands for the second and third letters in "you." Note that "y'all" stands for "you all" and is properly a plural form, though many southern speakers treat it as a singular form and resort to "all y'all" for the plural.

YE/THE

Those who study the history of English know that the word often misread as "ye" in Middle English is good old "the" spelled with an unfamiliar character called a "thorn" which looks vaguely like a "Y" but which is pronounced "TH." So all those quaint shop names beginning "Ye Olde" are based on a confusion: people never said "ye" to mean "the." However, if you'd rather be cute than historically accurate, go ahead. Very few people will know any better.

YEA/YEAH/YAY

"Yea" is a very old­fashioned formal way of saying "yes," used mainly in voting. It's the opposite of­­and rhymes with­­"nay." When you want to write the common casual version of "yes," the correct spelling is "yeah" (sounds like "yeh"). When the third grade teacher announced a class trip to the zoo, we all yelled "yay!" (the opposite of "boo"!). That was back when I was only yay big.

YING AND YANG/YIN AND YANG

The pair of female and male terms in Chinese thought consists of "yin and yang," not "ying and yang."

YOKE/YOLK

The yellow center of an egg is its yolk. The link that holds two oxen together is a yoke; they are yoked.

YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO/YOU CAN'T EAT YOUR CAKE AND HAVE IT TOO

The most popular form of this saying­­"You can't have your cake and eat it too"­­ confuses many people because they mistakenly suppose the word "have" means "eat," as in "Have a piece of cake for dessert." A more logical version of this saying is "You can't eat your cake and have it too," meaning that if you eat your cake you won't have it any more. The

point is that if you eat your cake right now you won't have it to eat later. "Have" means "possess" in this context, not "eat."

YOUR/YOU

"I appreciate your cleaning the toilet" is more formal than "I appreciate you cleaning the toilet."

YOUR/YOU'RE

"You're" is always a contraction of "you are." If you've written "you're," try substituting "you are." If it doesn't work, the word you want is "your." Your writing will improve if you're careful about this.

If someone thanks you, write back "you're welcome" for "you are welcome."

YOUR GUYS'S/YOUR

Many languages have separate singular and plural forms for the second person (ways of saying "you"), but standard English does not. "You" can be addressed to an individual or a whole room full of people.

In casual speech, Americans have evolved the slangy expression "you guys" to function as a second­person plural, formerly used of males only but now extended to both sexes; but this is not appropriate in formal contexts. Diners in fine restaurants are often irritated by clueless waiters who ask "Can I get you guys anything?"

The problem is much more serious when extended to the possessive: "You guys's dessert will be ready in a minute." Some people even create a double possessive by saying "your guys's dessert. . . ." This is extremely clumsy. When dealing with people you don't know intimately, it's best to stick with "you" and "your" no matter how many people you're addressing.

YOURSELF

In formal English it's safest to use "yourself" only after having earlier in the same sentence used "you." When the British reply to a query like "How are you?" with "Fine, and yourself?" they are actually pointing back to the "you" in the query.

It used to be common to address someone in British English as "Your good self" and some people have continued this tradition by creating the word "goodself," common especially in South Asia; but this is nonstandard.

YOUSE/YOU

The plural form of "you" pronounced as "youse" is heard mainly in satire on the speech of folks from Brooklyn. It's not standard English, since "you" can be either singular or plural without any change in spelling or pronunciation.

YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING/YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THINK COMING

Here's a case in which eagerness to avoid error leads to error. The original expression is the last part of a deliberately ungrammatical joke: "If that's what you think, you've got another think coming."

ZEROSCAPE/XERISCAPE

If you nuke your front lawn I suppose you might call it a "zeroscape," but the term for an arid­climate garden requiring little or no watering is "xeriscape" (­xeri is a Greek root meaning "dry").

ZERO­SUM GAIN/ZERO­SUM GAME

The concept of a zero­sum game was developed first in game theory: what one side gains the other loses. When applied to economics it is often contrasted with a "win­win" situation in which both sides can make gains without anyone losing. People who are unaware of the phrase's origins often mistakenly substitute "gain" for "game."

ZOOLOGY

Both O's in "zoo" are needed to create the "oo" sound in this word; but the same is not true of words like "zoology" and "zoologist." Here each O has its own sound: "oh" followed by "ah." The first two syllables rhyme with "boa."

Then there is a whole class of technical words like "zooplankton" where both O's are pronounced "oh," though the second "oh" is pronounced so weakly it comes out more like "uh" But if you need to speak such words, you probably know how to pronounce them already.

(Common Errors in English by Paul Brians)